Russia’s mobile phone users to get possibility to change their operator without change of number

The Economic Development Ministry offered to postpone the start of such a service, which was initially planned for January 2014

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MOSCOW, September 24 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s mobile phone users can get the chance to change their mobile operator without changing of their mobile number, Communication Minister Nikolai Nikiforov posted on Twitter on Monday, replying to the Internet subscribers’ concerns that Russians may be left without such a possibility.

Earlier, the Economic Development Ministry published a commentary to the relevant draft law of the Communication Ministry. In the document, the Economic Development Ministry offered to postpone the start of such a service, which was initially planned for January 2014.

“The service will be imposed undoubtedly,” Nikiforov said. In his words, “the resistance to changes is rather expectable.”

According to the estimates of the business community, it should take at least two years from the enactment of normative legal acts, regulating the possibility to keep a mobile number, till their fulfilment, he quoted the Economic Development Ministry’s explanations. The ministry also believes that mobile operators should undertake the commitment to guarantee the change of an operator without changing of a mobile phone number within a certain period of time.